CCEM 106 – Question 4

[Carly Johansson]

In your opinion, would purely electric vehicles be viable in your community today? If not, do you think it might be a possibility in the future?

[Carly Johansson]

In Victoria, most muni’s are starting to incorporate EV’s in their fleet. There are some residential EV’s out there, but not many. Here at my work, we have one EV Pool Car, but there is significant range anxiety among some staff, even though there are charging stations at most Muni halls, parkades and most Malls now.
I think the community in Victoria is closer than most to a viable EV community and as more people get exposure to them, the faster it will grow.

[Jen Grebeldinger]

It would be interesting to compare the Saltspring EV adoption rate to Victoria’s. 99% of the cars here were purchased in Victoria, or Sannich. We have an informal EV registrar; not something that is practical in the city I imagine.

[Jen Grebeldinger]

In Nanaimo, there are vehicle charging stations (most are Level 2 but there is one Level3) publicly available. Both the City and Regional District have electric vehicles and charge station in their fleet. There are also a few private electric vehicles around but they are rare. I think, given the existing infrastructure and presence of the technology, that it is viable today. What I think stops larger scale purchases is the limitations of range, carrying capacity and power (lots of pick up trucks on the road) and the cost of each vehicle. I think as technology moves forward, more people will switch. Especially when the cost of oil begins to rise again.

[Jen Grebeldinger]

I mentioned EV’s in my answer to the previous question. Just over a year ago we had less than 10 EV’s on Saltspring and now we have 61! We think that this is the highest ownership per capita in the country.

Word caught on about the well priced 2nd hand Nissan Leaf’s that were being imported from the US by a dealer on Vancouver Island. Most of these cars are from there. A few locals got together to get more chargers installed, and an initiative was started to provide subsidies for Bed and Breakfasts to install chargers to service the EV tourist market. I’m happy to say that these ideas were born out of the Community Energy Group that I volunteer for.

Or course the feasibility of EV’s is improved on an island where there aren’t any highways or places that are to far to go.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Jen Grebeldinger.

[Carly Johansson]

EV’s aren’t currently a viable option in Whitehorse – although there are some on the road and some real advocates in our community. There are some perceived issues that limit the uptake of EV technology, such as range and performance in cold climate, and some real issues such as the lack of charging infrastructure and the availability of winter electricity (i.e. in summer Yukon is 100% powered by hydro, in the winter this drops to roughly 80%, with the gap being filled by diesel generation). As we sort through these various issues I’m sure we’ll begin to see a greater uptake of this technology!

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